By Herp News

Wild birds in the state of Amazonas in Brazil are being trafficked for food and pet trade, according to a new study published today in Mongabay’s open-access journal, Tropical Conservation Science. Researchers found that between 1992 and 2011, the state’s environmental agency had seized nearly 2,700 wild birds being traded illegally. The study shows that the use and trade of wild birds is common throughout the state, the authors write. However, “due to the clandestine nature of these activities, and the lack of basic biological data for many of the species traded, determining the impact of trade on bird wild populations is difficult,” they add. Much of the Brazilian state of Amazonas is covered by the Amazon rainforest. Despite being rich in biodiversity, very few studies have looked at the animals being illegally traded in the state, the authors write. To fill the gap, researchers from Brazil scanned through 20 years of seizure records of illegal wildlife trade maintained by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (or IBAMA) in the state of Amazonas. The team found that IBAMA inspectors seized 2,698 wild birds — belonging to 40 species — between 1992 and 2011, mostly in the capital city of Manaus. Of the 40 species seized, around nine species did not occur in the state of Amazonas. Saffron finch is the most frequently seized bird in the state of Amazonas in Brazil. Photo by Greg Hume, Wikimedia Commons CC BY 3.0. The Saffron finch (Sicalis flaveola), Muscovy duck…

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One little, two little, three little Bearded Dragons in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user dedragons ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Last year, Indonesia became the first country in the world to issue a fatwa, or religious decree, against wildlife poaching and trafficking. Now, a Malaysian state has followed suit. Islamic clerics (or the Mufti Department) in the state of Terengganu in northeastern Malaysia, in consultation with experts from the state’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks and university scientists, have put together a fatwa that calls upon Muslims to protect Allah’s creations and forbids them from hunting any species to extinction. The fatwa – likely the first-of-its-kind issued by a Malaysian state – recognizes that illegal hunting is ‘haram’, or forbidden. “I think there was an urgent need for this fatwa because not many Muslims in Terengganu are aware that the Malayan tiger and its prey such as sambar deer are facing extinction, not just in the state, but within the entire country,” Gopalasamy Reuben Clements, an Associate Professor with Universiti Malaysia Terengganu and a Postdoctoral Research Associate with James Cook University who was involved in shaping the fatwa, told Mongabay in an email. “We knew there was some precedence for such a fatwa because the Indonesian Ulema council recently issued their first ever fatwa against illegal hunting.” The critically endangered Malayan tiger is threatened by poaching. Photo by Rennett Stowe Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0. A Muslim legal expert, or Mufti, announced the fatwa to over 500 local people at a conference organized by the Terengganu Mufti Department on November 26. “We do not naively believe that this fatwa will instantly stop the poaching,” Clements said. “We recognize that many…

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Undercover sting by Greenpeace exposes two prominent skeptics [The Guardian] Posing as consultants to fossil fuel companies, Greenpeace was able to uncover two prominent climate skeptics that were available for hire to write reports that would cast doubt on the dangers of global warming. Up to a quarter of Alaska’s permafrost could melt by 2100 [Guardian UK] So what’s the big deal with thawing soil? This permafrost, soil that’s been frozen for thousands of years, has been storing pools of carbon. As the permafrost begins to thaw, carbon and methane is released, thereby fueling more warming and melting, which in turn accelerates the warming of our climate even more. Affects from climate change has islanders pleading for help [Reuters] As rising sea levels and tidal waves wash away the coastlines of Maldives islands, the residents are asking for insurance to help cover the costs of the damage. There are some insurance options for other extreme weather losses, such as high waters and flooding, but not for costal erosion. Base of Mendenhall glacier in Alaska’s Inside Passage, Alaska United States. Photo by Rhett Butler. Nepal’s endangered river dolphins are making a comeback [SciDev.net] Conservation efforts in Nepal have been focused on tigers, elephants and one-horned rhinoceros, but not much focus has been placed on the lesser-charismatic Ganges river dolphin. However, the first river dolphin study in two decades estimates that the species has increased to about 50 individuals. What we’re risking by leaving oceans out of climate…

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The Tacana, a Bolivian indigenous group, have spent years developing sustainable land-use methods for their communities. Earlier this week their efforts were rewarded when U.S. actor Alec Baldwin presented the prestigious Equator Prize to the Tacana indigenous council during a ceremony at COP21 in Paris. The Equator Prizes, sponsored by the Equator Initiative, recognize sustainable development solutions. It is a difficult award to obtain; this year there were just 21 winners of the 1,461 nominations from 126 countries. The theme of the 2015 prize was deforestation prevention, seen as a pivotal player in slowing global warming. The Tacana consist of around 20 communities in northwestern Bolivia, near its border with Peru. Through their years of effort, they have legally secured legal rights to more than 389,000 hectares of their traditional land. They work to ensure its protection by developing sustainable livelihoods, conserving biodiversity, and protecting forests. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has been facilitating their efforts since 2001, as well as those of other indigenous Bolivian communities. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Andes Amazon Fund, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation are also partners in the Tacana initiative. Nicolas Cartagena (left) and Ruth Chuqui (center) of the Tacana Indigenous Council accept the prestigious Equator Prize (presented by actor Alec Baldwin) at a recent ceremony at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. Credit: Getty Images for UNDP. In total, WCS estimates that areas under Tacana management have been subject to four times less deforestation…

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Male and infant Río Mayo titi monkey (Callicebus oenanthe), in the Alto Mayo forests of Peru. This species is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, and at risk from illegal trafficking. Adult primates are typically killed and sold as bushmeat, while the young are simultaneously captured and sold for the pet trade. Photo by Anne DeLuycker [dropcap]L[/dropcap]ima’s central markets are famed for sprawling mazes of interconnected shops, organized by product; this block for shoes, that for textiles. At the heart of this bustling district, there is also a niche for the sale of animals — but not your typical kitten or puppy. Sellers push macaws intended as pets; frogs peddled as aphrodisiacs; monkeys purchasable for a price — with only cursory attempts made to conceal blatant ventures into the illegal wildlife trade. Police vigilance has repeatedly closed these shops, but just as often they’ve reopened, though proprietors are increasingly cautious. Each store’s doorway leads to a long central corridor, with tiny rooms sprouting on either side. Dark, narrow staircases go to the upper floors. “That’s where they keep items they cannot openly sell,” said my friend, a biologist born and raised in Lima. We had just entered the market, pretending to shop for a pet monkey. We viewed hundreds of ornamental birds — finches primarily — in cages. But no exotic animals were in view. Innocuous questions to one storeowner were received in stony silence. Another refused to answer even simple queries regarding the price of puppies.…

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In Russia’s Far East, an Amur (or Siberian) tiger named Zolushka has given birth to two cubs in the wild. Zolushka — Russian for Cinderella – was rescued as a starving four-month old cub by hunters, raised in captivity, and then released into Russia’s Bastak Nature Reserve in 2013, forests that had been devoid of tigers for the past 40 years. “This is a watershed event not just for Zolushka, but for the entire population of Amur tigers,” WCS Russia Director Dale Miquelle, said in a statement. “These births mark the return of tigers to habitat that had been lost, and the beginnings of a recovery and expansion of the last remaining Amur tiger population into habitat lost years ago.” Zolushka was a test case for conservation. After being raised in the Aleksayevka Rehabilitation Center for a year, 20-month old Zalushka was released into the forests of Bastak reserve in May 2013. At the time of her release, Zolushka was the only known tiger in the reserve. However, a lone male tiger arrived soon, according to the statement, reportedly after a 200 kilometer (~124 miles) hike from the northern-most portions of current tiger range in Russia. Researchers found tracks of both Zolushka and the male tiger in the reserve. Then on December 9, Ivan Podkolnokov, the reserve inspector responsible for monitoring Zolushka, managed to photograph and film the tigress with two small cubs. “The story of this Cinderella is no fairy tale,” Cristián Samper, WCS President and CEO, said in the statement. “The discovery of Zolushka’s cubs is…

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Happy Rattlesnake Friday! We just love this close up of a Massasauga in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user venombill ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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In 2013, European scientists discovered that a deadly chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (or Bsal) was causing mass die-offs in salamander populations across northern Europe. Experts believe that Bsal originated in Asia, and spread to Europe via the international pet trade. Predictably, researchers are worried about Bsal spreading to North America, home to nearly 50 percent of the world’s salamander species. So within a year of the pathogen’s discovery in Europe, conservation groups and researchers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico initiated major response strategies to combat entry and spread of the fungal pathogen in North America and called for swift policy actions, according to a new study published today in PLoS Pathogens. “It is important to remember that Bsal still hasn’t been detected in North America, so we have time and are currently ahead of the curve,” co-author James P. Lewis of the Amphibian Survival Alliance in Texas, U.S., told Mongabay. “But we need these policy measures in place now.” While policies directed towards controlling diseases in humans and livestock are aplenty, those targeting pathogens in wildlife are rare, Lewis said. In Europe for instance, where Bsal has already annihilated various salamander populations, only Switzerland is known to have restricted the import of salamanders, experts say. The Standing Committee to the Bern Convention in Europe also made a number of recommendations to countries in the European Union on December 4, but “these are far from solid policy action taking place,” Lewis said. Ensatina salamander (Ensatina eschscholtzii). Photo…

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The International Iguana Foundation has published a video outlining the crisis faced by the Jamaican Iguana (Cyclura collei). Endemic to Jamaica, t is the largest native land animal in the country, and is critically endangered, even considered extinct between 1948 and 1990. Once found throughout Jamaica and on the offshore islets Great Goat Island and Little Goat Island, it is now confined to the forests of the Hellshire Hills.

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Save Goat Islands, Jamaica

Jamaica's Portland Bight Protected Area and Goat Islands are threatened by the development of a mega port. This is the last place on earth Jamaican Iguanas exist, and home to tens of thousands of people who depend upon the fisheries of the Portland Bight. If destroyed….. it cannot be replaced. Watch, share, and join us in the fight to protect it. #savegoatislands
Double Life Films Robin Moore Conservation Photographer NatureStills Jamaica Environment Trust

Posted by International Iguana Foundation on Thursday, December 10, 2015

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By Herp News

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n September 9, I arrived back in Mombasa, Kenya, after an investigative mission to Dubai and Egypt for the independent conservationist Karl Ammann. No region of the world makes it easy for foreigners to document trade in endangered animals, but the Middle East is especially hard to work in. Karl’s writings on his previous missions there are as informative for the stories of stonewalling bureaucrats and run-ins with threatening animal breeders and police as they are for the facts gathered. As tough as the trip was, we did make some interesting finds. One is the possible existence of a super-smuggler of endangered chimpanzees and orangutans who remains completely unknown to the public, though not necessarily to law enforcers. We now know his real name, but on my return in September we had only a nickname for him, the first half of which — Gorge — I use here, and the second half of which is the name of a country home to wild chimpanzees. Gorge would still be unknown to us if an Egyptian conservation friend hadn’t mentioned him to me during our trip, at the end of August. She knew almost nothing about this man, but he was a foreigner and was stirring resentment among Egypt’s well established exotic animal sellers, many of whom keep their breeding facilities in a village near the Giza pyramids. An elder of one of those families had called our friend repeatedly to complain about this Gorge. Shady dealers complaining about another shady dealer.…

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How adorable is this Newt in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user plagueguitarist ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This is an adult East African gaboon viper. Note the very short rostral horns.
Stoked by a moment’s carelessness by a very experienced keeper of hot (=venomous) snakes that resulted in a bite by a Gaboon viper, as well as a number of other widely publicized incidents, the antivenomous lobby has again been awakened.

The bite was a most unfortunate accident for Gaboons are not difficult snakes to work with. In fact, they are among the easiest. A heavy bodied nocturnal ambush predator, Gaboon vipers (aka Gaboon adders) are usually of quiet demeanor during the hours of daylight and although more alert and active at night or when food is offered they are, except for a defensive or feeding strike, neither especially fast nor agile. Their remarkably pretty coloration and patterns render the species (here I am considering both the eastern and the western forms subspecies—Bitis gabonica gabonica and B. g. rhinoceros respectively— rather than genetically distinct full species). That Gaboons have long fangs and are able to expend a large amount of complex venom is unquestioned. The whys, wherefores, and legalities, of these potentially dangerous snakes being kept by hobbyists perplex non-herpers. Since a Gaboon viper was one of the first exotic snakes that I, as a herper, maintained, this is not a question I dwell long upon. I need only see—or not see, as the case may be—a Gaboon camouflaged against a leafy background and the “whys” answer themselves.

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By Herp News

A pair of critically endangered Takahē released on Maungatautari Mountain. Image in the public domain provided by the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust Imagine yourself surrounded by wispy branches, by an echoing chorus of bird songs, and by the scrutinizing gazes of lizards. You may ask yourself, where am I? The answer is…complicated, for you have found yourself neither in a zoo, nor in the wild. You are somewhere in between: a mainland island. The ‘mainland island’ is a new type of conservation inspired by the widespread success of pest eradication and the subsequent return of native flora and fauna on offshore islands in New Zealand. But unlike real islands, the mainland island model uses predator-proof fences to create a barrier isolating the reserve from adjacent landscapes, much like what oceans do for offshore islands. While some academics such as University of Canterbury professor, R. Paul Scofield, are skeptical of their success, projects like the Maungatautari Reserve in the Waikato region of New Zealand reveal a new potential for ecosystem reserves: their cultural services. The success of mainland islands is evident not only in the revival of native ecosystems, but also in the ways they have benefitted local and national communities. The management of mainland islands has brought together mutual stakeholders while the international attention has attracted travelers from around the world and boosted the economy. The predator-proof fence found in Maungatautari. Image in the public domain provided by the Maungatautari Ecological Island…

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War-ravaged South Sudan is home to a rich assortment of wildlife, researchers from Fauna & Flora International (FFI), Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, U.S., and South Sudan’s Wildlife Service have found. For six months, the researchers surveyed over 8,000 square kilometers (~3,100 square miles) of the under-explored forests of Western Equatoria state of South Sudan using camera traps, and captured more than 20,000 photographs of a wide variety of wildlife. Many of these animals have never been recorded in the country before, even in the pre-independece era, they say. These include the first-known record of forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) in South Sudan. “This is an extremely important finding,” DeeAnn Reeder, Professor of Biology at Bucknell University, said in a statement. “Forest elephants are Critically Endangered, and have declined dramatically over the last two decades. Finding them in South Sudan expands their known range — something that urgently needs further study because forest elephants, like their savannah cousins, are facing intense poaching pressure.” Researchers say that these are the first record of Forest elephants in South Sudan. Photo credit: FFI and Bucknell-University. Wildlife Ranger an Community Wildlife Ambassador setting camera-traps in South Sudan. Photo courtesy of FFI and Bucknell University. The cameras also captured the first-known photographic records of the African golden cat (Profelis aurata), water chevrotain (Hyemoschus aquaticus), red river hog (Potamochoerus porcus) and giant pangolin (Manis gigantea) in South Sudan, according to the researchers. The team also discovered the presence of many other wild animals like Chimpanzees, leopards, four…

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This is quite an amazing field shot of a Black Racer in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user piglet ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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By Herp News

The discovery also reveals the unique binocular vision of the first ancient marine reptile of its kind to be found in Japan.

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This hatchling viper gecko is so impossibly tiny! He is perched on top of a dime in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user JohnRobinson ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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This is a prettily marked adult Weller’s salamanderThe little bronze on black Weller’s salamander, Plethodon welleri, was named for a tragedy. In 1931, while collecting salamanders on Grandfather Mountain in western NC, herpetologist, Worth Hamilton Weller, the discoverer of this taxon, fell to his death.

The current status of this little plethodontid is a bit questionable. Some researchers claim it to be declining and in need of management throughout its range while other researchers feel the populations in NC, TN, and VA are stable.

This high altitude species (5000’ and above in many populations, rarely lower in some locales) apparently moves underground when temps near or drop below freezing. During warmer weather, and especially dampish warmer weather, finding one or a few is not a difficult task.

Weller’s salamander is adult at about 3 inches overall length. The amount of bronze on the dorsum seems individually variable. Within a given population some examples may be liberally suffused with bronze dorsal color while others may bear only a spot or two of the color.

Because of the beauty and remoteness of the habitat utilized by this salamander, finding this species is an exciting venture. On our Oct 2015 trip Patti and I experienced sustained winds of 20 mph and occasional gusts of 40-60 mph. I can assure you that we both stayed well away from the cliff faces that are so much a feature of the landscapes in this region.

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By Herp News

A Maned wolf resting among the long grass of the Cerrado. Photo by Rob Young [dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is by all accounts a bizarre creature. Nicknamed a “fox on stilts,” it is perhaps best known for its once-heard-never-forgotten “roar-bark.” A single look at this strange, gangly and rather scruffy creature, with its bobbing gait and bat-like ears — with the body of a wolf, face of a fox, legs of a deer, and urine that smells like marijuana — and you might be left puzzled as to why you’ve never heard of it. Classified as Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Maned wolf dwells mostly in the Cerrado — the vast savanna of Brazil, though it is also found in the pampas of Peru, and the scrublands of Paraguay and northern Argentina The current population of Maned wolves is estimated at 17,000 mature individuals, with the majority of the population — more than 90 percent — in Brazil, says the IUCN. In the last decade or so, the species’ main habitats have been subject to intense deforestation. In addition to habitat loss, the species is subject to other serious threats, including road kills, direct persecution by humans, and disease due to contact with domestic animals Low Mogiana region of São Paulo state, Brazil, where orange plantations replace the native Cerrado. Orange plantations rely heavily on pesticides, which are often sprayed from small aircraft. Photo by…

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Bears hibernate during winters. So do some bats, squirrels, and many other mammals. But very few primates are known to hibernate. In fact, scientists have previously observed hibernation in only three species of lemurs, all found in Madagascar: the western fat-tailed lemur, Crossley’s dwarf lemur and Sibree’s dwarf lemur. Now, researchers have discovered a non-Malagasy primate species — the pygmy slow loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) inhabiting forests of southeast Asia — that hibernates during winter. This is the first record of a hibernating primate outside of Madagascar, according to a new study published in Nature’s Scientific Reports. “There had been anecdotal observations of pygmy lorises that remained inactive for several days,” Thomas Ruf of Universty of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria, said in a statement. “Occasionally animals were encountered that felt cool to the touch. However, we discovered only now that the lorises actually hibernate.” Researchers have found that the pygmy slow loris can hibernate for up to 63 hours. Photo by David Haring / Duke Lemur Center|Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 By lowering body temperature and slowing down metabolism, hibernating animals try to conserve energy during cold winters when food is not readily available. The tiny nocturnal pygmy slow loris too, faces shortage of fresh vegetation and insects when ambient temperatures dip. To see if these animals actually hibernate during winter, Ruf and his colleagues recorded body temperature of five pygmy slow lorises in fall, winter and spring in a Vietnamese primate reserve. In the reserve, the researchers…

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This Rainbow Boa is quite festive in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user natsamjosh ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Extremely rare and hidden in the forests of the Andes, there are still new snake species left to find. This has recently been evidenced by the colubrid serpent, described for the first time in the present article. Enwrapped with questions about their species’ origin and therefore, correct taxonomic clustering, the reptiles have triggered discussions, also addressed in the study.

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What issues to be watching during the Paris climate talks [Nature] There is a little more than week left of the climate talks in Paris and tension has been building among negotiators. Here is a list of the six crucial issues that will be discussed during the second week of talks. Helping our youth to help the world [UN News Centre] The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has launched a digital mapping initiative called ‘Act Now For Tomorrow’. This project was started as an effort to help young people identify local climate issues and find ways to address them. Poorer countries are refusing to let this issue slide at climate talks [Guardian] Rich countries have committed to providing $100bn to developing countries by 2020 to help them combat climate change. However, there seems to be a large contrast among developed and developing nations on how they define adequate climate assistance. A lion in Kruger South Africa. Photo by Rhett Butler. The House votes to block Obama’s plan to curb greenhouse gas [CNN] While Obama is pushing for the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce limits on electric utilities and coal plants, the House has made it clear that they are not supporting the president’s plan. Possibly the worst disaster of its kind [Deutsche Welle] Just months ago, more than 20 Sei whales were reported stranded in Patagonia. After further investigation, researchers have uncovered the full extent of the horror in Chile. The coast of southern Chile has…

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How do wind energy companies kill protected bald eagles and golden eagles via turbine strikes every year without facing legal repercussions? They have renewable permits issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that exempt them from laws making it illegal to kill the birds. However, the U.S. District Court of Northern California has ruled that the FWS violated federal law by extending the duration of the so-called “eagle take permit” from five to 30 years without first investigating the impact it would have on eagle populations. The court made the ruling in August after reviewing a lawsuit against the FWS’s parent agency, the Department of Interior (DOI). After facing extinction in the mid-twentieth century the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) has rebounded to roughly 10,000 breeding pairs in the U.S., according to the FWS. The agency regards golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) numbers as stable at around 30,000 individuals nationwide. Both species are protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, as well as two other federal laws. However, wind turbines often strike and kill eagles. Up to 75 of the birds have been killed annually by a single wind farm, the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in central California, but mortalities at other installations are less well monitored. A 2013 paper in the Journal of Raptor Research documented 85 eagle kills at 32 other facilities between 1997 and 2012, but notes that the findings “likely underestimate, perhaps substantially, the number of eagles killed at wind facilities in the…

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Happy Ratttlesnake Friday! This Crotalus tigris, found and photographed in AZ, is keeping her eye on you in our herp photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user kevinjudd ! Be sure to tell kevinjudd you liked it here!

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Migratory birds are awe-inspiring. Every year, millions traverse across oceans and continents, many each racking up thousands of miles as they fly. The longest marathon migrant, the Arctic tern, covers more than 70,000 kilometers (about 44,000 miles) annually during its journey from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and back. However, very few migratory bird species are sufficiently protected across their long annual migratory routes, according to a new study published today in Science. Researchers found that only nine percent of the 1,451 migratory bird species they studied have all phases of their annual migratory cycles — breeding and non-breeding areas, as well as all the spaces in between — adequately covered by  protected areas. In comparison, around 45 percent of the world’s non-migratory bird species appear to be sufficiently covered by protected areas across their global distribution. “The authors’ conclusion that more than nine-tenths of all migratory species are missing key habitats needed for their annual movements is flat-out scary,” William Laurance, an ecologist at James Cook University in Australia who was not involved in the study, told Mongabay. “It underscores a dimension of the modern biodiversity crisis that too few of us have appreciated adequately.” Arctic terns have the longest migration known in the animal kingdom, flying from the Arctic to the Antarctic each year. Photo by Oddurben from Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0. Migratory birds barely protected Previous studies have looked at how some specific migratory bird species are protected in particular parts of the world, Claire A. Runge, lead…

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[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n Christmas Eve in 1968, on their fourth orbit around the moon, the three American astronauts aboard Apollo 8 were startled to see the Earth, a pale blue orb, rising from the darkness. The astronauts hurriedly snapped a picture, the first to be taken of Earth by a person in space. “It was the most beautiful, heart-catching sight of my life,” Frank Borman, the flight’s commander, recalled years later. “This must be what God sees.” Since the iconic Earthrise photo was taken, our ability to stare at Earth from above has only gotten better. Satellites take high-resolution images and measurements that enable environmental researchers to, among other things, predict weather patterns, track the movements of phytoplankton populations, and monitor active volcanoes. The iconic Earthrise photograph, snapped by an Apollo 8 astronaut on the first manned mission to the moon on Christmas Eve, 1968. Image courtesy of NASA. But so far, environmental scientists aren’t taking full advantage of satellite observation to help fight the intensifying loss of biodiversity. Typically, scientists estimate the biodiversity in an ecosystem by tallying up the number of individuals of different species in a specific area and plugging them into mathematical models. But these results tend to be limited and highly variable. A vantage point in space could prove invaluable, Nathalie Pettorelli, an ecologist at the Zoological Society of London, told Mongabay. Space-based measurements of biodiversity at varying scales could provide a yardstick of an ecosystem’s overall health and help scientists understand…

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SO bright and brilliant, this Yellow Anaconda shines in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user mattf77 ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

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Having a bottom 2 1/2 x 3 feet and a height of 5″ allows one to catch all manner of herps, fish, and aquatic insects.
The other day Mike and John came by and borrowed my Goin Dredge (see photo above) to try their luck finding small fish, aquatic salamanders and tadpoles in some of our local shallow (ankle to chest deep are fine, but waist deep seems to be preferred) waters. They had a productive day, one that hearkened me back to the days when Patti and I spent time dredging and photographing the results.

To use the dredge one wades out to floating masses of aquatic vegetation (water hyacinths being among the better plant types) slides the dredge beneath the root masses, lift the contained vegetative mass to the surface and sort through the roots and stems.

Among other things, in this way Patti and I found two-toed amphiuma, 3 species of siren including our first Everglades dwarf siren, dwarf salamanders, river frog tadpoles, mud snakes, striped crayfish snakes, various water snakes, an occasional small cottonmouth, and many interesting fish and invertebrates.

We’d return home hours later, soaked, mud-covered, and satisfied. Maybe it’s time to do this again!
Continue reading “Dredging for pollywogs” …read more
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By Herp News

Heads of nations are meeting right now at the COP21 conference in Paris, where they are brainstorming ways to avert catastrophe by limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius over the coming years. Keeping carbon in the ground is a crucial element of this goal, and as forests are still our best bet for doing that, deforestation is playing a central role in the discussions. Cutting carbon emissions from tropical deforestation in half by 2020 is being touted by many as one of the best ways to reach the two-degree target. To create a baseline and help people keep tabs on deforestation and the world’s carbon stores, the World Resources Institute (WRI) yesterday debuted Global Forest Watch Climate. The latest in its Global Forest Watch (GFW) series of forest monitoring platforms, GFW Climate is a mapping and analysis tool that displays the emissions impacts of deforestation in tropical areas around the world. Why the tropics? Because tropical forests are experiencing the world’s highest rates of deforestation. Topping the list of drivers is industrial agriculture, which is clearing trees to grow palm oil and cattle, paper and soy, along with many other commodities. Logging is also having big impacts around the world. For instance, a study in 2014 found Indonesia lost more than six million hectares of forest from 2000 through 2012, primarily to commodity production and timber extraction. Half of this loss occurred in the country’s endangered lowland forests, home to critically endangered orangutans, tigers, and rhinos. Sumatran orangutans (Pongo…

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Photo: SUMA AQUALIFE PARK
Crossing a railroad track is difficult for turtles with their slow speed. They also are at risk for falling between the tracks and getting stuck, until eventually run over or caught in part of the track’s rail-switching mechanism. Not only do the turtles lose their lives, but the trains can become damaged, causing delays in service.

In an effort to prevent more turtle’s deaths while crossing train tracks at Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe, Japan a new turtle crossing has been developed and installed. Carving out U-shaped concrete escape ditches that run beneath the tracks they have escape paths conveniently located close to the tracks’ switch points, where turtles most often get trapped.

Ever since the turtle escape tunnels have been implemented this past April, at least 10 turtles left the train tracks via their new route — saving their lives and minimizing any expenses that may have resulted from train repairs and delays.

Read more at Discovery. …read more
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By Herp News

Market Four in Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital, sells a variety of wild animals illegally for the pet trade, for consumption, and medicinal purposes. Photo: ©Santi Carneri [dropcap]T[/dropcap]he monk parakeets were small and bright green, crowded, almost on top of each other in a cage the size of two stacked shoeboxes. It was a humid day in crowded, bustling Market Four, a sprawling market in Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital. The pet vendor’s stall was topped with a tarp and surrounded by fruit and vegetable sellers, their wares piled high. The parakeets shuffled in their cages, stepping on each others’ toes. Some had necks worn raw and red from pecking and infection. The parrots were endangered, protected by Paraguayan law and international treaty: it was illegal to move them out of the country; illegal to sell them inside the country without papers. In the cages next to the parrots were turtles, and little burrowing owls; all wild-caught, all illegal. You could find even more exotic fare too, a local biologist told me, if you knew to ask: monkeys were hidden under the crates of mangos and yucca. “The sellers all work together there,” she said. The pet vendor was a potbellied middle-aged man with red eyes and a twitchy demeanor; unsurprising, given that his merchandise were illegal. As Santi, my photographer, snapped pictures of the birds, the seller moved a piece of cardboard in front of the lens. His goods were not supposed to be there: monk parakeets,…

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Eastern Box Turtle Terrapene carolina carolinaI took this in-situ photograph of a wild Eastern Box Turtle in May of 2015. Despite missing many scutes, this scarred specimen was out searching for food and behaving completely normally. After years seeing thousands of reptiles and amphibians in the field it has been my experience that turtles can be very tough creatures.

I have seen turtles that have survived all kinds of major injuries, including a Common Snapping Turtle, Chelydra serpentina, whose head was cut in half but survived for years. If you have not seen the Red Ear Slider, Trachemys scripta elegans, that survived having its eyes, nose, and mouth parts cut off you should be sure to google that.

I consider myself to be a humane person, and many of my herp friends are as well. None of us want to see an animal suffer, but think twice before you take any sort of humane action against a wild, free-ranging reptile. You might be surprised by the healing powers that many wounded reptiles possess. We have all seen herps run over by vehicles, and in years past even I might be tempted to, “put a snake out of its misery.” However, time and experience demonstrated to me that a lot of these injured animals have the ability to heal and survive for many years. When legal, I am more likely to move an injured animal to safety than to euthanize it, and I encourage all of you to learn from my experience and give injured wild animals a second chance at survival. …read more
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This Tegu peeking out of his transport bag in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user striggs makes you wonder if he is looking to see how far spring is away!! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more
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It was the first really, really cold night in Mobile this season. There was no choice than to bring Frankie inside.

Pretty much Frankie has torn up and outgrown his current outdoor habitat. He couldn’t turn around inside anymore so I modified his inside box so he would fit. Then he tore out the doors so I had to build a new front.

New cover for the Frankie Cave

Adding an oil heater made Frankie’s cave good to 40º F and he stayed outside later this year than ever before but when temperatures headed to the 30’s Frankie had to come in for the night.

I don’t like it.

Sulcata tortoises who live primarily outdoors, where they should be, don’t like coming indoors except for some exploration and furniture moving. He spent the next morning in the living room waiting for the door to open.

Occasionally I would open the door and Frankie would decide if it was warm enough to go outside. By noon Frankie headed outside but reluctantly came back inside house about two o’clock. Frankie was greeted by Pepper, our new kitten, who had questions about the large boulder that farted.

Explain this!

There is hope for Frankie. We are building a new outdoor enclosure for him. We are very excited but it’s not ready yet. There is nothing like a 100 pound farting, pooping, sock eating, furniture moving, wall gouging, moving bolder in the house to motive two care takers to get the new outdoor habitat ready.

Frankie got a sneak peek last week inside the his new habitat….

I’m excited because there is room for me to sit with a nice cup of coffee and enjoy the morning with Frankie. I was teasing Greg about adding WIFI and he said, “It’s got WIFI. We can monitor temperatures and watch Frankie on camera.” Alright! Frankie and I can watch The Walking Dead on my computer!

Looking forward to showing everyone Frankie’s new habitat almost as much as Frankie is to move back outside. Until then…

(In Memory of Bob, Maggie’s beloved sulcata who brought us all so much joy. Thank you for sharing Bob with us all.)

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By Herp News

Tens of thousands of African elephants are poached every year for their ivory, which has had a drastic impact on population numbers. According to The Nature Conservancy, the African elephant (Loxodonta africana) population declined from 1.2 million individuals in 1980 to just 430,000 in 2014. Conservationists have long argued that, because community and private lands support 60% of Africa’s wildlife, conservation efforts must recognize the vital role of local communities in protecting elephants, rhinos and other key species. Now, a report released by Northern Rangelands Trust, which works with 27 community-led wildlife conservancies in northern Kenya that protect more than 6 million acres, provides compelling empirical evidence that community conservation is indeed an effective means of protecting wildlife. Since 2012, elephant poaching is down some 35 percent in the 27 community conservancies the NRT works with, the report says. A total of 81 elephant mortality cases were recorded by NRT rangers in 2014, with 28 of them being poaching cases, Ian Craig, NRT’s director of conservation, writes in the report. There were 49 poaching cases in 2013. African elephant. Photo by Matt Miller / The Nature Conservancy. “A concerted effort by the Government of Kenya working in partnership with stakeholders has contributed to this reduction,” Craig writes. Last year also saw substantial increases in the amount of ivory and weapons recovered, as well as a higher number of arrests — from 5 in 2013 to 19 in 2014 — according to the report. A recent study…

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Photo: GetSurry
The most comforting thing in young Charlie Burnett’s life is his pet snake. Charlie is a high functioning autistic child and also suffers from Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome (PDA), which can result in emotional meltdowns when stress levels are too high.

“It’s changed Charlie’s world,” she told the Woking Advertiser. “I can’t tell you the difference it’s made to our family. We’ve had hamsters in the past but they have done nothing. He’s not interested in them But now I know I can come home from work, take the snake out of the box and he’ll be calm.”

It has also changed his parents feelings on snakes.

“I’m not a snake lover, I’m petrified of them,” admitted Ms Gridley, saying the same went for her partner.

“But being fearful of them is outweighed by the benefit. We grin through the fear.”

REad the full story at GetSurry. …read more
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By Herp News

African grey parrots are known to be smart, talented mimics. Alex, one of the most well-known African grey parrots in the world, could mimic over 100 human words, differentiate between various shapes and numbers, and would even wish his trainer “goodnight”. Predictably, these birds are extremely popular as pets. But their popularity has taken a heavy toll on their wild populations, according to a new study funded by Spain’s Loro Parque Foundation, and published in the journal Ibis. In Ghana, close to 99 percent of African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) have disappeared since 1992, largely due to unrestricted trade, researchers have found. Once abundant, these birds are now extremely rare in the country. “We knew the Grey Parrot had suffered serious population declines over the last two decades but we did not envisage the declines were this severe in Ghana,” Nathaniel Annorbah, lead author and doctoral student at the Manchester Metropolitan University in U.K., told Mongabay. “Populations declines in the region of over 90% are potentially catastrophic to the survival of the species in Ghana.” International pet trade is decimating African grey populations in the wild. Photo from Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0. African grey parrots are one of the most commonly traded of all birds. More than one million wild grey parrots were likely traded between 1982 and 2001, the authors write. To assess the impact of such widespread trade on wild African grey parrots, Annorbah, and his colleagues, reviewed the bird’s historical distribution in Ghana, and surveyed…

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This little White’s Tree Frog has his eye on you in our Herp Photo of the day, uploaded by kingsnake.com user exoreds ! Be sure to tell them you liked it here!

Upload your own reptile and amphibian photos photos at gallery.kingsnake.com, and you could see them featured here! …read more
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